POCKLINGTON enjoyed comfortable passage into the last eight of the Yorkshire Cup thanks to a 39-15 home success over East Yorkshire rivals Driffield.

Progress was effectively sealed in the first hour, before Driffield notched two late tries to make the scoreline a little more flattering.

Pocklington’s reward is a daunting quarter-final trip to National League outfit Harrogate, scheduled for February 25.

There was little between the two North One East rivals in the first quarter.

Driffield missed an easy early penalty, before wing Jonty Peters was on target with a similar kick for Pocklington to open the scoring on the quarter-hour mark.

Pock then started to do damage with their strong runners, and after they had swung the ball wide right to stretch Driffield’s defence, they zipped it quickly left for returning wing Tim Nixon to power over in the corner.

The hosts then pulled clear as open-side flanker Jack Holbrough went over twice in quick succession.

Both times he used his strength to break the first line of the defence before showing good pace to race clear.

Peters kicked both conversions and Pocklington were in the driving seat at 24-0 at the interval.

Peters added another penalty at the start of the second half before Driffield finally opened their account with a penalty from fly-half Will Brigham.

Pocklington soon regained the initiative and they went through 20 phases to take the play from their own 22 up to the Driffield 22 where centre James Flint sliced through to score, Peters converting.

It was still one-way traffic and Pocklington kicked a penalty to the corner for replacement prop Dan Elvidge to muscle over.

At 39-3 with 15 minutes to go, Driffield were staring at the abyss. But they dug deep to salvage some consolation with their late tries.

A lineout catch and drive saw replacement lock Simon Walgate plunge in, then sustained pressure ended with number eight Will Burns crashing over for Brigham to convert.

Meanwhile, Nestle Rowntree RUFC travelled across the city to face York 3rds in the North Yorkshire Trophy full of confidence after a good start to the league campaign.

However, injuries hampered their chances and they were undone by the Clifton Park outfit, who went on a second-half romp to win 54-8.

Trees had a decent first 40 minutes but, having lost a couple of key men to injury early on, the wheels came off in the second as they were forced to play out the half with only 14 men.

Both teams tried to play open rugby to start with, the visitors going ahead with Jack Daniels penalty after ten minutes.

Trees then allowed York too much space and they scored under the posts, but they hit back and on half-time second-row Tom Eaton barged his way over for an 8-7 lead.

The second half likewise began evenly but eventually York’s pressure told and they began to score tries at regular intervals.